By JAMES WALLACE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Updated 10:00 pm, Thursday, July 25, 2002

LONDON -- The Boeing Co. has not been pleased about a new $5 million ad campaign by Airbus that suggests its four-engine planes are safer than two-engine planes for long-haul flights, such as those made across the Pacific.

The ad is seen by Boeing as a misleading scare tactic that Airbus is using against the 777, Boeing's twin-engine plane that competes against the four-engine A340 on long-range routes.

"The Airbus A340. 4 engines 4 long haul," the ad says.

It began running in trade publications at this week's Farnborough Air Show, and several Boeing commercial airplane executives ripped into Airbus during interviews with the Post-Intelligencer for running an ad they say is wrong and will frighten passengers -- the last thing the industry needs during the current airline crisis when passenger traffic is way down.

Industry data do not support the argument that four-engine planes are safer than those with two engines, according to Boeing.

The Airbus ad touches a nerve with Boeing because it goes to the heart of Boeing's airplane development philosophy: Given the modern-day reliability of engine technology, a two-engine plane is not only safe, it's also more efficient.

Airbus said the ad is not meant to scare people but rather to promote the A340, which Airbus says is a better plane than the 777 and more popular with passengers.

Boeing has only one four-engine plane, the 747. But it was designed more than 30 years ago.

Commercial boss Alan Mulally was probably only half-kidding when he said this week that if the engine makers could come up with an engine with enough thrust, Boeing would build a twin-engine 747.

Boeing's next all-new airplane, whether it is the long-haul sonic cruiser or a conventional jetliner, will have two engines.

The next all-new Airbus plane, the A380 super jumbo, has four engines.

The latest Airbus ad coincided with the delivery to Virgin Atlantic Airways Monday, the opening day of the air show, of the first A340-600, an ultra-long-range version.

Boeing is also developing an ultra-long-range version of the 777. But the two-engine 777-300ER (extended range) will not enter service until early 2004.

Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic, said he weighed whether to buy the 777-300ER or the A340-600. One reason he decided to go with the Airbus plane, Branson said, was that it had four engines.

"We did a little marketing and it indicated there was something like 17 to 18 percent of passengers go out of their way to fly a four-engine plane on a long-haul flight rather than a two-engine plane, Branson said.

"In the airline industry, that is a big percentage."

And he suggested the percentage might be on the conservative side.

"If people have a choice of a four-engine plane going across the Atlantic or a two-engine plane, and everything else is equal, the percentage could be even higher than 18 percent," he said.

Virgin Atlantic is one of the launch customers for the A380 superjumbo.

"No one has ever gone out and advertised four engines before," Branson said, referring to the Airbus ad.

But that's not so.

Airbus played the four-engine vs. two-engine card three years ago.

That 1999 Airbus ad campaign was even less subtle than the current one in suggesting that passengers are safer on four-engine planes for longer routes.

That Airbus ad showed the A340 over the vast empty ocean: "It's always reassuring to have the redundancy option of four engines rather than two. Especially when you're a long, long, long way from home."

In addition to Boeing, one airline executive who took exception to the 1999 ad was Gordon Bethune, chief executive of Continental Airlines.

In a letter to then Airbus Managing Director Noel Forgeard, Bethune wrote, "In the ad, you exploit the unfounded fears of the traveling public on the four engine vs. the two engine concern as a safety issue."

Bethune went on to tell Forgeard, who today is chief executive of Airbus, that he, Bethune, would never order an Airbus plane because of such scare tactics.

And Continental has remained an all-Boeing customer.

Of course, Bethune is no unbiased observer. Before taking over at Continental, he led Boeing's single-aisle jetliner programs in Renton.

Branson buys both Boeing and Airbus jets.

Virgin Atlantic operates a number of 747s and Branson said his airline will order more.

Branson clearly prefers four-engine long-haul planes.

Should one engine go out on a long-haul twin-engine plane, he said, safety regulations require that it immediately divert to the nearest airport and land. But a four-engine plane can continue flying to its destination on three engines, he said, adding that passengers "don't get stranded in Timbuktu."

That kind of talk doesn't sit well with Boeing.

"Don't fall for this four-engine stuff," said Randy Baseler, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

He said airlines don't take chances, and if one engine goes on a four-engine plane, it diverts to the nearest airport.

About 90 percent of all diversions, be they on four- or two-engine planes, are not because of engine problems, he said. A sick passenger is often the reason a plane is diverted.

He went on to say that all available data show that the A340 has had twice as many diversions and turnbacks as the 777.

It also has had twice as many dispatch delays at the airport, he said.

"What that means as a passenger is that you should take the 777 because there is a better chance of getting to where you ant to go and a better chance of departure."

Boeing, of course, is only too happy to make the case to reporters at the air show that its 777 is the better plane.

At one briefing to talk about Boeing's 20-year market forecast, Baseler could not resist telling reporters the new A340-600 weighs 40,000 pounds more than the 777-300 and is nearly as heavy when it is empty as the 747-400, which has 90 more seats.

In an interview, Baseler said the new Airbus plane burns 20 percent more fuel per passenger than the 777.

"It is an environmental nightmare," he said.

He suggested the latest Airbus ad should say: "The A340. 4 engines 4 the oil companies."

The ad could backfire on Airbus, Baseler said, since its twin-engine A330, like Boeing's twin-engine 767, is used on trans-Atlantic routes.

Nicole Piasecki, Boeing's vice president of business strategy and marketing, also has strong feelings about the Airbus ad.

"They are an excellent PR (public relations) company," she said of Airbus. "And they do an excellent ad campaign. When I say excellent I mean it gets attention. But it is not high integrity.

"They fly a two-engine plane (A330) but they don't say that. They know the real data says twin engines are more reliable than the four engines they have on their planes. The data says it. Everybody knows it. Their ads go for whatever their vulnerabilities are."

Piasecki also said this is not the time to be running an ad that could keep passengers off an airplane.

"The industry at this time doesn't need that,' she said. "Everyone finds that unacceptable."